Leadership, AI, and Modernization in the Elevator Industry | Ricky Williams
In this episode, I sat down with Ricky Williams, a seasoned elevator industry leader whose career spans engineering, sales, business development, and executive leadership. Ricky is currently serving as vice president of business development and sales at ESI. Over the years, he’s built a reputation for combining technical knowledge with a practical people-centered leadership style. Ricky’s perspective is shaped by decades of hands-on industry experience and a strong belief that understanding both people and field operations is key to long-term success.
Chapters:
00:00 Ricky’s Current Role and Responsibilities
05:09 Lessons from Early Career in Engineering
07:39 Technology Evolution in the Industry
10:32 Predictive Maintenance and Its Challenges
13:23 Understanding Elevator Modernization
16:31 Transitioning from Engineering to Sales
18:13 Pros and Cons of Industry Consolidation
20:36 Leadership Lessons and Team Collaboration
23:30 The Future of Vertical Transportation Technology
26:20 Reflections and Advice for the Future
Resources:
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Transcript:
Matt Allred (00:00)
I’m curious, what was it you had to maybe think differently about as you made that shift from engineering into sales? Is there something to that to really connect with the customer?
Ricky Williams (00:15)
what I noticed earlier on in the transition was that there were some customers who had specific questions and the sales guy wouldn’t necessarily have the answer. So it delays the process. And I thought, if I could answer these questions right now in this meeting, maybe this guy will make a decision today.
I’ve always believed in information to the customer, to the end user is gonna be key in a successful sales career. I’ve had tremendous success doing it. And over the years I’ve seen it happen in different companies.
And at one point they were calling them sales engineers because now they were sending engineers out to go sell because they’re educating. They’re giving the customer the information that he’s asking for right there on the spot and they’re closing deals. that’s the one thing that I think will make the difference.
Matt Allred (01:22)
Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast brought to you by the Allred Group. I’m your host, Matt Allred. When talent is mission critical, call the Allred Group. With industry expertise, top talent, and exceptional customer service, you need the Allred Group on your side. Your priority is our priority. Call now, 404-890-0445.
In this episode, I sat down with Ricky Williams, a seasoned elevator industry leader whose career spans engineering, sales, business development, and executive leadership. Ricky is currently serving as vice president of business development and sales at ESI. Over the years, he’s built a reputation for combining technical knowledge with a practical people-centered leadership style. Ricky’s perspective is shaped by decades of hands-on industry experience and a strong belief that understanding both people and field operations is key.
to long-term success.
Matt Allred (02:15)
Ricky, welcome to the show.
Ricky Williams (02:17)
Thank you. Thank you, Matt.
Matt Allred (02:19)
You bet. I appreciate you being here. Always enjoy the conversation. I’m looking forward to talking with you more about your career. Tell me what you’re doing right now.
Ricky Williams (02:30)
So my current role is business development VP, business development and sales. Lately, I’ve been dabbling in some of the projects that we’re working on here at ESI. Getting involved with some of the engineering, not to the level that I used to back in the days, but more of a advisory
type role while we design products and look at what the market needs and which direction we should go. So as a team, we have these meetings and kind of put the whole thing together and the engineering team then take it from there and do their thing.
Matt Allred (03:18)
Nice, nice. mean, you got your hands full, right? I know you’re traveling a good bit, you’re in executive leadership, but you’re also responsible for sales, business development, and so it’s lot.
Ricky Williams (03:21)
Yes.
Correct, correct, correct. And these are all things that I’ve enjoyed, you know, all my career, you know, from the engineering part of it to the sales part of it, building business development, you know, today it’s all one
Yeah.
Matt Allred (03:46)
Absolutely. Yeah, no, that’s cool.
⁓ So let’s talk a little bit, you know, early career. I know you started on the engineering side. You’ve obviously worked up into executive leadership. What did you learn early on in the field that most executives in this industry miss?
Ricky Williams (04:04)
The first thing was people. People have personalities and in order to manage people successfully, you gotta know the personality. And I see this is where there’s a lot of miss not just in our industry, but everywhere. Management don’t take the time to understand the people.
Matt Allred (04:14)
Hmm.
Ricky Williams (04:28)
working for them and you know, things aren’t as efficient as they could be. So I learned this later on and it changed the way I managed and you could see the successes coming from that knowledge.
Matt Allred (04:47)
Nice, nice. Well, yeah, as you can connect with the people, you really get more from them, right? They’re more bought in and know that you care. And yeah, that’s awesome. And obviously you’ve done engineering, fieldwork, sales, yeah, business development. Where do you see the biggest disconnect between those groups today?
Ricky Williams (04:53)
Correct. Correct.
Well, you know one thing that I’ve always noticed, the guys in the field, they really determine the products that are used. A lot of sales or business development folks when they go out, they try to go see the wrong people. And you know, you’ll have a conversation with someone in the office and…
Matt Allred (05:30)
Hmm.
Ricky Williams (05:36)
It’s a great conversation and look like you’re heading the right direction. But if the technical guys touching, installing, servicing the product aren’t in sync with what your product is offering them, of course, you know, it’s not going to work because the guy in the field is giving feedback to his office, you know, ⁓ time wise, I’m installing this.
in half the time, this group is easier to deal with, I get better support from this group, you know, those type of feedback determine what product is used. So I think that’s where there continues to be a disconnect. Not as big as, you know, back in the day, but it’s still there. And I think once people close the loop on that, you know, they’ll see different results.
Matt Allred (06:31)
Yeah, that’s good point. Obviously, you’ve been around through the evolution of computerized controls and now advanced monitoring. What would you say has changed the most and what’s still surprisingly stuck in the past?
Ricky Williams (06:41)
Right.
surprised me is that we haven’t done more with technology in terms of giving more information.
to end user service companies. so it is happening. It’s not like it’s not happening, but it hasn’t happened at the pace that I thought it could have happened. Because we have data from these systems and for a long time we did nothing with it. And it’s just in recent years with IOT and so on that people are saying, by the way, hey,
Matt Allred (07:10)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (07:26)
Can we get this from your system? Can we see this? And companies are now saying, oh yeah, we could do that. And they’re sending that type of detail.
So yeah.
Matt Allred (07:36)
So it’s really coming
from the customer? Is that what you’re saying? The customer’s kind of demanding it? ⁓
Ricky Williams (07:41)
It is, it is,
and not just customers, consultants are a big part of it. In fact, we’re working with consultants that say, hey, I’d like to see this from your technology. Can you do this? And we can, and we have. In fact, we just said, hey, provide me a list of what you’d like to see, and we’ll incorporate it in our product. And that’s one of the things we’ve been doing just to make
Matt Allred (07:52)
Mm-hmm.
Nice.
Ricky Williams (08:09)
their lives easier, it’s going to be easier for them to say I want that product because it’s doing what I need and I’m getting the information from it as I need it. So we are doing that and it will continue to evolve as you move forward.
Matt Allred (08:24)
For sure, for sure. I I
had a conversation, I don’t know, six, eight months ago, and the gentleman was telling me that as far as that data goes and kind of the, you know, that the customers are demanding it, that we’re probably, as an industry, you know, about 10 years behind other industries, you know, whether it’s power generation or maybe even HVAC. What do you think’s behind that?
Ricky Williams (08:42)
Alright.
You know, there’s a couple of things going on. You know, back in the 90s, we had this information. No one was asking for a building management system to receive this data. elevator systems were seen as something separate. Today, people are looking at their facility, they’re building as one complete thing, including elevators. And I’d like to see all the information in it. And as we
Matt Allred (09:11)
Gotcha. Gotcha.
Ricky Williams (09:15)
educate end users on the capabilities of products. They’re asking for these things and they should. I think people make better decisions when they know what they’re working with. You know, they know your product and what the capabilities are. They’ll make better decisions and that’s what we try to do. So you’ll see little things in our sales brochure, our sales material. You know, we’re trying to do that. We offer
Matt Allred (09:29)
absolutely.
Ricky Williams (09:45)
you know, not just classes to mechanics, but you know, meetings with end users to educate them on the capabilities of the products that they’re using every day and how it could simplify their lives. You know, people used to, when something breaks, you know, say at airport facility or in a college campus, elevator breaks, the remote monitoring was someone telling someone else and they get it
Matt Allred (10:07)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (10:15)
get it back to the facilities and it would take days. You know, today, as it happened in real time, someone is getting it on their cell phone or on their PC, they’re getting notified. technology supports this, so why aren’t we doing more of this?
Matt Allred (10:16)
Sure.
Yeah, yeah, no, that’s a great question. I mean, obviously you’re working on and with and interacting and integrating with state of the art monitoring systems. How close would you say are we to really true predictive maintenance?
Ricky Williams (10:48)
We’re there. It’s just, I think, the various companies, the interests of those companies in incorporating it. But that’s what we’re doing. The more information I could push out to you or I could make available to you, the better it’s going to be.
Matt Allred (11:09)
Do you feel like
it’s able to really predict, your machine’s gonna go down? I mean, I don’t know what all is monitored, but I’m just curious how, is it truly predictive where we can say, hey, this motor’s about to blow because of the temperature
Ricky Williams (11:26)
exactly. So, you know, in the old days you would give a percentage of end of life, you know, if it’s a million cycles, you know, and you get, yeah, and before it ends you say, hey, I think you should replace this thing, it’s getting to end of life. Today you could measure different pieces, different parts of the equipment and know when it’s about to fail.
Matt Allred (11:36)
You just count the cycles and go from there.
Hmm.
Ricky Williams (11:52)
You know, so as I said, the technology is there. We could do these things. It costs money. you know, that’s something that’s going to delay it, know, budgets and so on. But the technology is there.
Matt Allred (11:58)
for sure.
I think what I’m hearing you say is not everybody’s going to have it, right? Because they haven’t invested or maybe it’s too big of an investment for them. So, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So I mean, if you could sit down with every building owner or property manager, what’s one thing about elevators or escalators you wish they understood?
Ricky Williams (12:12)
Right. Correct. Correct.
So one big thing that always come up and I’ve been to a lot of meetings and expectation of end of life. When should I modernize this thing? And everybody has their own opinion whether it’s 10 years, 15 years. But one thing I’ve learned, if I was a business, a building owner, I’d like my equipment to last as long as I need to keep it running.
Matt Allred (12:35)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (12:56)
This is where things differ between companies because here where I am, we have product running for 40 years, trouble free. In fact, when it finally has an issue, it’s something that’s obsolete because it’s so old. And the decision is easy that point. Hey, I want another one of those, current model, of course. But I’d like to
Matt Allred (13:14)
Yeah, yeah. Sure.
Ricky Williams (13:25)
Building owners to understand that you can put a product in your building that will run That will keep your traffic flowing as their designed and get the job done Too many products out there Are not seem to be built in the same manner they don’t see it the same day you look at it as okay This will last 10 years. I’ll do the next one in 10 years
And just keep things going, but I think if people are happy with your product, they’ll want it in their building.
Matt Allred (13:58)
absolutely. Yeah.
Yeah. So I am I’ve not ridden on car tops and haven’t been in that space as much. But what is it that that usually says, hey, it’s time to modernize, right? Because you’ve got a controller and you’ve got the you all the parts in the the shaft way and the you know, cars and motors and everything. And I hear people say, well,
we don’t call it a mod until we replace the controller, even though technically you could replace whatever, the car and a bunch of other things and say, well, no, it’s not a mod. I’m just curious, what is it? What part, what component is it? Is it electronic? Is it mechanical? That finally says, all right, it’s time. Let’s go with it.
Ricky Williams (14:32)
Right.
It could be
either or or all the above. ⁓ It all depends the problem it’s creating for that building.
Matt Allred (14:45)
You
Ricky Williams (14:50)
If a car is shutting down every day, it’s a controller problem or a door problem. It’s going to be a nuisance enough where someone is going to say, wait a minute, we need to take a look at what’s happening here. Do we need to do something? And then you have mini mods where you just replace
fail component. Someone may look and say, your machine is fine, you could get another 20 years out of that, no problem. So obviously that’s going to stay in place and we’ll probably replace a controller and the door equipment, you know, and other pieces of course, ropes and so on, if you have a different type of problem. So it all depends and this is why you have these guys go out and survey to determine the health of the system.
Matt Allred (15:24)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (15:39)
and what needs to be replaced. For most people, you’re going to do something, hey, let’s look at the controller. Let’s see if we could get some more technology in here. And ⁓ they go that direction. So typically when they do a mod, controller is coming in. They determine what else comes with it based on the health of the other equipment.
Matt Allred (15:59)
That makes sense. Obviously, your career is a little unique because you started in engineering and you understand how engineers think, and then you’re in sales and business development. I’m curious, what was it you had to maybe think differently about as you made that shift from engineering into sales? Is there something to that to really connect with the customer?
Ricky Williams (16:28)
No, well, what I noticed earlier on in the transition was that there were some customers who had specific questions and the sales guy wouldn’t necessarily have the answer. So it delays the process. And I thought, you know what, if I could answer these questions right now in this meeting, maybe this guy will make a decision today.
or maybe he’ll understand enough where you said, want this thing. And I’ve always believed in information to the customer, to the end user is gonna be key in a successful sales career. So I’ve done that, I’ve had tremendous success doing it. And over the years I’ve seen it happen in different companies.
And at one point they were calling them sales engineers because now they were sending engineers out to go sell because they’re educating. They’re giving the customer the information that he’s asking for right there on the spot and they’re closing deals. So that’s the one thing that I think will make the
Matt Allred (17:48)
Yeah, I mean, sounds like for you it wasn’t so much, I need to think differently. It’s, I just need to bring what knowledge I have and be able to address whatever concern that the because they’re going to have a lot of questions. But if I can bring that knowledge and they’re now at ease, well, then they’re ready to sign on the dotted line and we can move forward.
Ricky Williams (18:06)
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Matt Allred (18:09)
you’ve worked with major companies, you worked with smaller, more agile environments. What would you say are the real pros and cons of consolidation in the industry?
Ricky Williams (18:19)
And when you say consolidation, you’re talking about acquisitions and so on.
Matt Allred (18:23)
acquisitions and and sure.
Ricky Williams (18:28)
Acquisitions are good. It allows us the finance, put it that way, to do the things that we need to do to produce a better product in a small company environment, sometimes budget.
isn’t the same and things we’d like to do. Now you have two different lists of items. Items we will do, items we would like to do, you know, and we go through the list. In a large company, the decision is made a little different. But, you know, the acquisitions on a whole,
It’s kind of like a recycling of these companies, you know, because they absorb them, but every now and again, somebody pops out and starts something again. So it never really goes away. The cycle just keeps going. And I’ve been through a few of them and, you know, I’ve enjoyed them.
Matt Allred (19:13)
Sure.
Yeah, I mean, it seems to be kind of the circle of life in this industry, right? Somebody said to me once, you every time one company is acquired, two more pop up.
Ricky Williams (19:34)
Yes, yes, absolutely.
That’s right, that’s right, cause
there’s always a guy that says, hey, I wanna be my own boss and he jumps out and he does it.
Matt Allred (19:47)
Sure.
Yeah, I’ve got an idea that they’re not going to let me do, and so let me bring some more innovation in. Yeah, very cool. Yeah. And having led organizations as president and VP, what would you say is one leadership mistake that you made that changed how you manage today?
Ricky Williams (19:52)
Right. Exactly.
there’s one in particular, you know, so as leaders, we want to think that we know best, you know, we know what we should be doing and so on. And earlier on, I never relied on my team, my support team to share their view, their vision. And, but of course, over time,
Matt Allred (20:24)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (20:32)
that has been corrected. that was one thing, you know, I would always say, all right, this is what we should be doing, but never allowed my team to mold it or make it into the thing that’s going to drive us forward. And, you know, I always look back at those days. What should I have done different, you know?
Matt Allred (20:57)
Was there ever a light bulb moment where it’s like, we’re just kind of came into focus for you or was it over time?
Ricky Williams (21:04)
Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah. And not that long after, because one of the things I did back during the initial days was dialogue, you know talk to the people just to make sure we’re all on the same page. And over time you realize, well, that idea could really enhance what I’m thinking here. Let’s explore it.
Matt Allred (21:19)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (21:33)
And that’s when the light bulb kind of went off.
Matt Allred (21:37)
Cool, cool. I’ve noticed that even in my own business, That if sometimes I’ll stress out my employees and I’m like, okay, I did something, I said something, maybe I’m pushing too hard, maybe I’m expecting something that’s not reasonable and it’s taken a few iterations of pausing, listening, okay, what did I do this time, right?
Ricky Williams (21:56)
Yeah, exactly.
And sometimes you don’t get it right away. You walk away and it’s in your hair. You say, let me go back to this. Yeah, it happens.
Matt Allred (22:05)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, all good. That’s how we learn, right? So it’s good. So when you think of the future of vertical transportation, the technology, labor, customer expectations, what actually concerns you the most?
Ricky Williams (22:10)
Yep, absolutely.
Yeah, you know, the technology, of course, is going to move forward as technology evolves. Our industry doesn’t use the technology in its current state, we’re cycles behind for the industry. ⁓ But what I see happening is, you know,
Matt Allred (22:33)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (22:51)
AI is going to catch up. And I’d be surprised if OEMs aren’t already working on these things. In fact, we are exploring it. But at some point, there’s going to be an effect on labor. And I’m talking field labor, because with AI, the power that AI brings is now you could have a
Matt Allred (23:04)
Mm.
Ricky Williams (23:18)
virtual entity monitor your system, your elevator equipment, and tell you what’s broken. Probably the only thing it won’t be able to do is turn a screw and say, this is me. But it’s going to tell you. It’s going to pinpoint issues. So I see that. So then the effect of that, I believe, will be you’ll have less mechanics in places that
Matt Allred (23:27)
Mm-hmm.
Sure, sure.
Ricky Williams (23:47)
we have them today because there is a system in place that’s keeping the equipment safe, keeping people safe by monitoring it. It detects a problem. It’s going to shut it down until a human arrives and conduct repairs. So, you know, that’s kind of what I see coming with the technology we’re entering right now. And with AI, just fast forwarding.
Matt Allred (24:06)
Mm-hmm.
Ricky Williams (24:17)
you know, blasting across all planes. You know, it’s
Our industry’s next. Yeah.
Matt Allred (24:22)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So
feel like the AI is a is a big change. It’s big.
Ricky Williams (24:30)
It’s probably going to be
the biggest change we will see, I think, in our industry, once it’s fully implemented.
Matt Allred (24:40)
Right, I hear you. So this question may be kind of the inverse of that same question, but I’m just, if we were to have this conversation in five to 10 years, what do you think will have changed? How will things look different in how things are built, maintained? I mean, you kind of spoke to that a little bit, but what would you expect to see?
Ricky Williams (25:02)
what I don’t want to see is elevators becoming a commodity. know, someone is, you know, there’s no thought in it. But, and it can, it can advance to that level where you just, you know, order it online and you get it. you know, they’re designed
Matt Allred (25:07)
Mm-hmm.
Sure.
Ricky Williams (25:22)
that way if we put enough engineering in it. And that’s something we look at as well. But, you know,
I still see that change coming. It’s not going to affect the manufacturing part of the business as much as the service side of the business. I think the impact will affect them a bit more. For us, we just determine different ways of achieving the same thing. We come up with a product.
that’s going to achieve these results. And number one, it’s going to be safe, ⁓ which I think a lot of people just gloss over. But that’s where I see it heading with AI ⁓ playing a big role at this point.
Yeah.
Matt Allred (26:17)
yeah. So as we
wrap up, if you were to look back at Ricky, years ago when you were just starting out, what advice would you give yourself, your younger self?
Ricky Williams (26:31)
Yeah, it’s funny because when I started Jean-Pierre who hired me, I remember him saying that, know, two types of engineers, the ones that come in and they stay with it and the ones that come in realize what elevators are and say, don’t want to be a part of it and they leave. Let’s see in a few years which one you are and I’m still here. But
Matt Allred (26:57)
Yeah, sure.
Ricky Williams (27:02)
I think I probably would have said, hey, you did what you love and you enjoyed it. I wouldn’t change it.
Matt Allred (27:12)
Awesome. I think that says a lot about what you’ve accomplished and that you found a place that you love to be and it sounds like you’re going to be here as long as you’re able or want to, right?
Ricky Williams (27:24)
As as I’m healthy. Yeah,
that’s right. That’s right. That’s the plan.
Matt Allred (27:28)
Awesome. Well, Ricky, thank you again. I appreciate you being with me today and thanks for the opportunity to interview.
Ricky Williams (27:36)
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for offering this experience. I appreciate it.
Matt Allred (27:41)
You bet.
Matt Allred (27:42)
Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast sponsored by the Allred Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. Please visit our YouTube channel @ElevatorCareers or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net. Please like and subscribe and until next time, stay safe.